Brandon Els

The meeting went great and MTN are totally happy with team and their sponsorship. They will continue with the fish and chips here in SA and that was never doubted except by people looking to get pageviews and newspapers sold. They like what the fish and chips are providing them with to the LSM markets they need exposure. Chucky - If supporting locals makes me naive then I am happy to be naive. There are cheats in all endeavours of life. Nobody is comparing MTN to Barloworld and yes Barloworld is in a totally different league. We are all proud of Barloworld and that includes MTN and the MTN riders, Raleigh and our staff. We root for Barloworld - they are Saffies and we back our own. Barloworld may inspire a youngster to want to be a pro and he may at 19 or 20 get that chance on a local team who your fish and chips. Without fish and chips his talent won't be noticed. So when John Lee wins his 1st TdF stage or Classic please remember that he started mountain biking at Fat Tracks as a kid and then moved onto events like EP Herald (fish and chips) and junior tours where he was noticed. Thanks MTN for backing fish and chips! Wake up!!

Who reads good news? Doug's phone has been ringing off the hook with media calling looking for sensational quotes. Its a routine meeting in the sense that weekly MTN Cycling Team meetings take place weekly. If MTN choose to pull the sponsorship at the meeting then thats that, but I doubt they will because I know they are very happy with their return on investment. Its certainly no rushed meeting that was not planned. From Raleigh's stand point we will continue to support SA pro's financially and with equipment. If any cheats are amongst those that we support they will be asked to leave as per contracts we have with them. We will not throw the baby out with the bathwater because cycling belongs to the average person that makes our customer base who enjoy riding for riding and cycling does not belong to 3 cheats in the TdF.

Pics of the new 2008 RC6000 Carbon and RC3000 Carbon will be posted shortly to my blog. All bikes in the range will be on our website 6 August 2007 including the retail pricing. Thanks for all the pageviews

Just uploaded a pic of the 2008 RC7000C with Shimano new Ultegra SL on my blog.

The 2008 bike pics are being released on my blog starting today. Cheers. Brandon.

Back to the grindstone The first dealer that will have Light and Motion is Wayne Pheiffer Cycles in PE as he has ordered for the Transbaviaans. For pricing e mail albert@probike.co.za We are going to be more expensive than international websites for our first shipment and we have taken a much lower mark-up than what we do on spares normally. But we have stock and also more importantly back-up spares, extra batteries etc. Stella was not shipped and is due to be shipped to us now only in August. Any questions just e mail Al.

Its put mountain biking in South Africa at the centre stage of world mountain biking. I travel to 5 bike shows a year in the East, Europe and USA - the number one thing people want to talk about is the Cape-Epic. 6 of the top 10 UCI ranked mountain bikers last year?? I say well done to all involved with the Epic. Showing the world that South Africa rocks!!

Ghost, trying to win arguments on the hub is not why I post on the hub and certainly not to score points. Its to provide info on issues relating to Raleigh. I am honoured that you registered on the hub just to reply to me. All our R&D is done by Deda who we have outsourced our frame design too. At this stage I believe they supply 3 - 5 TdF teams and have a design and testing centre outside Milan. In mentioning the Specialized that failed in the Cape-Epic I was drawing attention to the selective criticism that is metered out at times and not to the quality of Specialized product. It would be great to see more Specialized on our roads and trails.

Mr. Harry, 26 out of 900 2007 Raleigh carbon frames have cosmetic cracks caused by the frame being baked at an incorrect temperature. I will be dealing with this on my blog at www.raleigh.co.za Warranty frames are available and they are new top of the range Deda frames. When Cervelo recalled all their P2's and a Supercycling presenter cracked his Specialized during the Epic I hardly heard a beep which tells me that the number of Raleigh's being sold is a real concern in certain quarters. We suspect that there in total 50 frames with this problem out of the 900 sold. Please call me directly on 083 458 5552 if you or any of your friends did not get the Tavulo Uno replacement frame. The most awesome thing though is this new technology and forums like the hub that puts the power in the hands of the consumer - as it should be. If you read my blog this week you will notice that Raleigh will in future open all sources of supply, vendors, assembly plants etc. I would welcome a move in the same direction by all brands of "superior" quality.

I love your comment! We are working on making them ride better as well so that hopefully we can win even more races Let me know how we can make them ride better and we'll have a look into it!

I am thinking about a reunion. Tim Brink supports it as well. Maybe we go across the vlei in the boats again and do the ride around Swartvlei. I got plenty of old pics that I am gonna scan and post as a link to my blog - including Luke Harrison winning the cross-country in 1990 on that Cannondale we drooled over.

Thanks Latrinus. If you knew hom many beers I had with the real Mr. Emmer in 1992 at the Sedgefield Fat Tyre Festival then you would not use his name in vain. Or is it you?

Sure ewep!

Give me a week or 2 and we will have them in the new MTN colours and then we can release the pics to all.

Its the new 2008 frame with a disguised spray job

Please help us get the hits up on the site and we don't mind being slagged off!! Oh yes - www.raleigh.co.za

Kobie, Karbona is a trading company and not a manufacturer. If you visit their website you will see rip-offs of Selle Italia saddles. This is their business model. I am interested to know from which quarters you heard they built bikes for us? Raleigh's are built by Kenstone who build Cervelo and many others. The frames used are designed by Deda with manufacturing outsourced to ADK now and Lung I in the past. I have tried to keep my postings in a manner that do not appear defensive so please join me on a trip to Shangahi and I will take you to buy a Ping G5 driver for the equivalent of R 450.00 or could it maybe not be a Ping G5? Raleigh opposition run for cover from our value proposition and many postings mask a justification for costly bs marketing that is produced in our very factories by the same European designers. Any further questions brandon@probike.co.za or 083 458 5552.

Christie, the frame you refer to as Raleigh/Flanders/Karbona was designed by Deda of Italy. The manufacturing of the frame was licensed to a company called Lung I. Raleigh purchased the exclusive rights to this frame design for South Africa from Deda. Lung I in contravention of this agreement sold 18 frames to a trader in Durban under the brand Karbona. Karbona is a company that knocks of international designs as can be seen from their website. Deda has as a result of this discontinued Lung I as a supplier. Deda has moved all production to a factory called ADK who manufacture for Raleigh South Africa, Felt, Merida, Fuji, Kestrel and many more. Regarding the engineering and design of the frame - I believe that there is no question of Deda's capabilities and track record which are well documented on the internet. Any qustions brandon@probike.co.za or 083 458 5552.

Corrie, I hope I can supply you with the facts you require. Raleigh has to date since our 2007 launch in August 2006 sold more than 900 RC Team, RC7000C and RC6000C which all use the same Deda frame. To date there have been 26 failure's of this frame and a complete list of these are available from albert@probike.co.za There are 200 replacement 2008 Deda Tavulo Uno frames arriving at Raleigh in 3 weeks for any consumer that had a frame failure. The warranty stock is clearly in excess of the failure rate. Deda have issued a letter to all Raleigh Elite Dealers that this is a problem with a single batch of frames that were baked at an incorrect temperature causing cosmetic cracking of a surface joint. The assembly plant that manufacturers Raleigh is Kenstone. It is also the same assembly plant as Cervelo and many other high-end brands. Should you have any further questions please contact me at brandon@probike.co.za or 083 458 5552.

Sure the facts are boring, but this is an open invitation to pop around for a chat at the Raleigh booth at the Argus Expo if you want to be bored by the facts!! The facts may be shocking to anyone paying 40% more for a bicycle brand assembled in the same factory as Raleigh!!

Any consumer that would like to discuss this issue and recieve info on the number of bikes sold vs failure rate along with details of vendors who manufacture for Raleigh and other leading brands are welcome to call me directly - Brandon Els. MD Raleigh - 083 458 5552.